Question

Describe the experiments that revealed the structure of the genetic material. If a sample of DNA contains 8% adenine (A), then what are the percentages of thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G)

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

One of the earlier experiments that confirmed DNA and not proteins as genetic material was conducted by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase

Hershey and Chase experiment showed the genetic material of virus is DNA not protein. Their experiments demonstrated that Phage are composed of DNA and protein, when phage infect bacteria, their DNA enters the host bacterial cell but not protein before infection

Hershey and Chase experiment prove that DNA is the hereditary material.

From chargaff base pairing rule, the ratio of purine to pyrimidine is a cell is 1:1. Since adenine pair with thymine and cytosine pair with quanine, this means the percentage of adenine will equal the percentage of thymine.

%A = %T and %G = %C.

%A + %T + %G + %C =100

If a DNA contains 8% adenine, therefore the percentage of thymine is 8%

8% + 8% + %G +%C = 100%

16% + %G +%C = 100%

%G +%C = 100%-16%

%G +%C = 84% = 84%/2= 42%

Since %G = %C

Then %G = 42%, %C = 42

Answer 2

By Chargaff's law, the percentage of a base is always equal to the base from which it pairs.

So the percentage of adenine is 8%, thymine is 8%, cytosine is 42%, and guanine is 42%.

Chargaff's law

According to the law :

• If the percentage of adenine is 8%, the thymine concentration will also be 8% because adenine pair with thymine. The combine percentage of both pairs is 16%.

• The remaining percentage is 84%, so the percentage of cytosine and guanine will be 42% each.

• The 16% of adenine and thymine and 84% of guanine and cytosine makes 100% of concentration of four bases together.

Thus, the percentage of adenine is 8%, thymine is 8%, cytosine is 42%, and guanine is 42%.

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